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IM 6-1
CHAPTER 6
Principles of Interviewing
Resource Guide
The opening page of each chapter in Communicating at Work lists desired learning outcomes. The
Resource Guide will assist you in locating activities and resources from the text and Instructor Manual
that are relevant to each objective.
Chapter Objectives
Resources
Explain how to define interview goals, identify and
analyze the other interview party, and choose the
best interview structure.
Key terms: structured interview; interview;
moderately structured interview; unstructured
interview
In the text:
Activities: 1
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 1-6
Classroom Activities: 1,2
Written Application Exercises: 1
Demonstrate knowledge of the uses and limitations
of each type of interview question: primary,
secondary, closed, open, fact, opinion, direct,
indirect, and hypothetical.
Key terms: closed question; direct question;
factual question; hypothetical question; indirect
question; open questions; opinion question;
primary question; secondary question
In the text:
Activities: 2
Technology Tip:
Conducting Video Interviews
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 7,8
Classroom Activities: 3,4
Video Activity: 1
Describe the purpose of and appropriate conduct
during each stage of an interview: opening, body,
and conclusion.
In the text:
Activities: 3
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 9-11
Classroom Activities: 5,6
Video Activity: 2
Plan and conduct an information-gathering
interview to assist you in a current work or school
project; plan and conduct a career research
interview that will help you clarify and/or achieve
your career goals.
Key terms: gatekeeper, career research interview
In the text:
Activities: 4-6
Career Tips:
Successfully Navigating Job Fairs
Getting Through Gatekeepers
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 12
Classroom Activities: 7-10
Identify and demonstrate the steps to prepare for,
participate in, and follow up after an employment
interview.
Key terms: employment interview, scannable
résumé
In the text:
Activities: 7,8
Case Study:
The Coffee Bar
Technology Tip:
Creating a Digital Portfolio
Self-Assessment: Your IQ (Interview Quotient)
IM 6-2
Instructor's Manual online:
Personal Reflection for Journaling
Discussion Launchers: 13-15
Classroom Activities: 11-14
Written Application Exercises: 2,3
Describe features and common uses of various
types of employment interviews and explain ways
to prepare for each.
Key terms: audition interview, behavioral
interview, panel interview, stress interview
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 16,17
Classroom Activities: 15
Written Application Exercises: 4
Distinguish between legal and illegal employment
interview questions and identify advantages and
disadvantages of each of four methods of
responding to illegal questions.
Key terms: bona fide occupational qualification
(BFOQ)
In the text:
Activities: 9
Ethical Challenge:
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 18
Classroom Activities: 16
Describe and observe the ethical obligations of
interviewers and interviewees.
In the text:
Ethical Challenges:
Handling Difficult Questions
Promoting Yourself with Honesty
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 19
Classroom Activities: 17
Video Activity: 3
About Chapter 6
Chapter 6 of CAW’s 11th edition combines material that was presented in Chapters 6 and 7 of the 10th
edition. This chapter introduces interviewing skills and strategies, and it demonstrates how these
communication skills are essential for career entry and advancement. Chapter 6 explains how interviews
differ from other interpersonal communication situations. It emphasizes the importance of goals, analysis,
and structure in interviews. Different approaches to structuring interviews are presented, as are the
advantages and disadvantages of each approach for achieving different goals in various contexts. The
chapter illustrates the importance of planning, organizing, and asking questions, and it assesses the
outcomes that usually result from various interview strategies. The phases of the interview—opening,
body, and conclusion—are analyzed in a way that helps students plan for and conduct each part
competently.
Next, the chapter highlights various customary interviews that most students will be asked to
participate in at some point in their careers, either as interviewer or interviewee: the information-
gathering interview, the career research interview, and the employment interview. Students can increase
their chances of success in the professional world as they become competent in each type of interview. In
presenting employment interviews, the text guides students through an interview from the viewpoint of
the interviewee: conducting background research on employers, developing networks for potential
employment interviews, answering interview questions with specific evidence, and following up with a
letter of thanks. Guidelines are presented for participating in typical interview formats: audition,
behavioral, panel, and stress.
IM 6-3
Students’ ability to communicate effective in interviews will be an outgrowth of lessons learned in
previous chapters. Behaviors that create a positive impression are discussed, including appropriate attire
and a constructive attitude. These strategies link back to characteristics of communication learned in
Chapter 1 (communication is unavoidable) and in Chapter 4 (nonverbal communication is powerful and
always has communication value).
The relevance of networking is highlighted as a way to form connections with those who know about
employment opportunities; this builds on the concept of informal networks introduced in Chapter 1. The
sections on setting interview goals, writing interview questions, and backing up answers to interview
questions with specific evidence can be linked back to lessons learned in Chapter 4 about accompanying
abstract statements with lower-level abstractions.
The chapter closes with a discussion of the ethical obligations of interviewers and interviewees,
explaining the differences between lawful and unlawful questions.
Personal Reflection for Individual Journaling
One of the first steps in preparing for a job interview is to equip yourself with some brief
narratives that demonstrate your experience and will capture the attention of the interviewer(s).
Consider a job that you are currently qualified to apply for. For each of the following four topics,
write down one brief, lively, very specific story that demonstrates your competence in relation to
this specific job: education, prior work experience (volunteer work is OK), career-related goals,
an outstanding personal trait. End each story with a statement explaining how that experience
makes you an excellent candidate for this job.
Discussion Launchers
1. Consider a career field you might want to enter. What types of interviews are conducted in that
field? What interviewing skills might help you in succeed in that field?
2. What is the most enjoyable interview you ever participated in? What made it so?
3. Describe the worst interview you ever participated in. What made it so?
4. Can you think of some situations that you might not ordinarily think of as “interviews” but that fit
the definition? What makes an interview different from a conversation?
5. What is the relationship between the amount of control an interviewer has and the interview
structure?
6. Who should assume responsibility for the structure of the question-response phase of the
interview, and why?
7. When do you like being asked open questions? Why? When do you like being asked closed
questions? Why? Have you ever responded to a closed question as if it were an open question, or
vice versa? Explain.
8. Observe your conversations for a day. What types of questions do you usually ask? Which types
of questions elicit the most interesting answers?
9. Do you think it’s necessary for all interviews to follow the three-stage pattern of opening, body,
and closing? If so, why? If not, why not?
IM 6-4
10. Imagine that you are about to be interviewed by a three-person panel as part of the process of
applying for a very competitive scholarship. What could the interviewers do to put you at ease?
What might the interviewers do that would increase your anxiety? Which approach would be
most effective for the purposes of the interview? Why?
11. Based somewhat on your own experience, what can an interviewer do to help establish a high
level of rapport between interviewer and interviewee?
12. Since the purpose of an information-gathering interview is to gain information about a topic, why
does the text exhort you to gather background information first? What might go wrong if you fail
to do adequate research before the interview?
13. What problems are associated with traditional job-search methods? What problems are associated
with non-traditional ways? Do you think there could be legal, moral, or ethical questions about
non-traditional ways? Do non-traditional ways smack of a “good old boy” network? Do non-
traditional formats tend to keep out women and minorities?
14. What do you think are the most necessary steps for an applicant to take before coming to an
employment interview? What did you do to prepare yourself?
15. What are the most frequent complaints of job interviewers about their interviewees? How could
you avoid being the type of interviewee an interviewer might complain about (or joke about) after
the interview?
16. Compare the primary functions of each type of interview covered in this chapter. Think of a
variety of situations in which each type might be used.
17. Recall the most threatening interview situation you’ve experienced. What made it seem
threatening? What format did the interviewers use? If you had a chance to do that interview over
again, how would you prepare differently?
18. Review the section in your text titled “Interviewing and the Law,” and rank-order the suggested
responses from least to most effective. (Note to instructors: Emphasize to students that no one
response is always best; they will need to consider the specific context to make a productive
decision.)
19. Consider situations you are aware of when an interviewer or interviewee has not adhered to the
ethical principles outlined in this text. What were the consequences? What advice would you
offer to the person who did not uphold ethical expectations?
Classroom Activities
1. Preparing for Interviews
Objective: This activity acquaints students with resources through which they can learn more about
interviewing.
Procedure: Divide students into several groups, and give each group a list of websites and published
materials that offer information and advice about interviewing. Several possible resources are listed under
the Resources section at the end of this chapter. Groups will assign each member one resource to
investigate and summarize. Groups will compile the individual members’ summaries in an annotated
bibliography of resources to distribute to the rest of the class.
Class Discussion: When groups submit their bibliographies of interviewing resources, discuss their
findings:
• Which resources did your group find most useful? Why?
• Did any groups find resources that were not on the original list your instructor gave you?
How did you find these additional resources?
• Which information corresponds to material found in your text?
• Did any resources contradict material found in the text? If so, how would you explain the
discrepancy?
• Did you find any supplementary material not covered in the text? Describe.
• How could you best apply these resources in your own lives?
2. Choosing the Best Interview Structure
Objective: Students will learn the strengths and weaknesses of various interview structures by selecting
the best structure to use in various situations.
Procedure: Review the distinguishing characteristics of each type of interview structure. Then give
students a list of various interview situations, or have them compile their own list. Ask them to choose
the most appropriate structure for each situation. Some example situations follow:
• a professor is confronting two students who submitted papers with a number of paragraphs
that show very similar wording.
• the members of a community college department of communication are interviewing the five
top candidates who have applied for a teaching position. Assume that the college is governed
by EEO rules guaranteeing equal treatment to all applicants.
• a manager of a large department store is conducting annual performance reviews.
• a newspaper reporter sees a local politician on the street and hopes to get her attention long
enough to hear her stand on the public transportation system that has just been proposed.
• a national company that sells electric razors wants to find out which characteristics customers
would pay more for.
Class Discussion: For each situation, compare students’ suggestions, and ask them to explain their
choices. If there is disagreement about the best structure for a situation, explore the differences.
3. Types and Combinations of Questions
Objective: The purpose of the following activity is to demonstrate that not all types of questions are
mutually exclusive and to have students develop various combinations of questions and rationales for
their use.
Procedure: Provide students with a list of the types of questions discussed in the text. First, discuss how
some types are mutually exclusive and some are not. (For instance a question can be both open and
opinion, or opinion and secondary, but it can't be both open and closed). Second, have students construct
other combinations of questions, and more importantly, describe the situation (goals and context) in
which each combination would be useful.
Class Discussion: Generate class discussion during this activity with questions such as:
• Which types of questions are mutually exclusive? Which types are not?
IM 6-6
• Which types of questions do you think are the most difficult to generate? Which types seem
the most difficult to answer?
• How would you generate questions that are mutually exclusive?
• Why would you want to use a mutually exclusive question? Why wouldn’t you?
4. Preparing Questions
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide students with the opportunity to prepare a list of
questions for various interviews.
Procedure: Individually or in small groups, have your students identify the type of interview each
situation below represents, develop four quality questions they might ask in each situation, and label each
question according to its type.
A. Assume you are interviewing a person for a college teaching position in the (name a
department) Department, and you are trying to determine whether this candidate possesses
the appropriate interpersonal skills to be hired by your college, which has as its motto: “The
student is the number one customer.”
B. A student has dropped this class. You are members of a college retention committee assigned
to do exit interviews to determine why students do not complete classes and what can be done
to improve student retention in the future.
C. You are a student attending a job fair. You see a recruiter who represents a company you are
really interested in working for. Write questions you could use to help determine if this
company would be a good match for your skills and personality.
D. You are a newly hired member of the human resources department of the ABC Company
(you decide what type of company it is). You have been assigned the task of redesigning the
performance appraisal process. Describe the process you would recommend, and then
develop at least four questions you would encourage supervisors to ask their subordinates
during an appraisal interview.
Class Discussion: The following questions could be used to lead a class discussion.
• What rationale did you use in developing each question?
• How would you prepare for each of these situations differently? Why?
• In what way do questions differ across the three contexts?
• How is the information obtained from each of these situations used in different ways?
5. Openings and Closings
Objective: Students will increase their comfort level in conducting interviews by planning, practicing,
and analyzing the opening and closing phases of interviews.
Procedure: Arrange students in pairs. Each pair will think of a specific interview situation. They will
then plan and practice a smooth opening and closing for the interview that includes all the elements
suggested in the text.
Class Discussion: After students have had time to plan and practice their openings and closings, elicit
some volunteers to act out their role plays in front of the class. Ask the class to identify each element of
the opening and closing. Then discuss the quality of the role plays.
• How did the interviewer establish rapport?
• Did the rapport step seem gimmicky or sincere?
IM 6-7
• Did the opening lines include an adequate orientation? Was the orientation informative, yet
not too mechanical?
• Was the interviewer successful in sincerely motivating the interviewee without sounding
obsequious?
• How did the interviewer clarify the results of the interview in the closing?
• Did the interviewer clearly establish future actions?
• Did the interviewer conclude the interview with appropriate pleasantries?
6. Planning the Interview
Objective: This exercise gives students practice in the steps of planning various types of interviews.
Procedure: Divide the class into several groups. Review the four interview situations Gina will be
working with in the case study about the coffee bar (clarifying the regional manager’s expectations; hiring
an assistant manager; hiring new clerks; exploring how to reduce employee turnover; conducting market
research with customers). Ask students to select one of these situations. Their task is to assume the role
of the interviewer and create a plan tailored to their interview situation. They should consider each of the
planning steps: define the goal, identify and analyze the other party, prepare a list of topics, choose the
best interview structure, consider possible questions, arrange the setting.
Class Discussion: Ask groups to share their interview plans and explain their rationale for each step.
Allow the class to critique and expand on each group’s interview plans. You can follow up by presenting
discussion questions such as:
• Does this plan create a threatening or a supportive climate? Explain.
• How might the climate impact the outcome of the interview?
• If the class suggests an alternative structure, setting, etc., how might those changes impact the
climate of the interview?
• If you had to limit your interview to only five minutes, which of the topics and/or questions
would you eliminate, and which would you keep for sure?
• If you did not include some of the question types described in the chapter (e.g., factual,
opinion, indirect, hypothetical), why didn’t you? If possible, think of at least one example of
each type that you didn’t include. Could you add these questions to your interview without
changing the tenor of the interview?
7. Identifying Sources for Information–Gathering Interviews
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to help students develop skills in identifying people who are
sources of information when they are preparing for the interview process. Additionally, students should
better understand the multiple sources of information available to them.
Procedure: Provide the following instructions to your students, and have them identify the potential
sources of information available for each of the proceeding questions.
Instructions to students: Working alone or with one to three partners, identify all of the possible
sources you can for answering the questions below. You do not have to answer the questions, but
you should identify the possible sources. Then, rank–order the sources to indicate the best one to
explore first. Identify the best source as #1, the next best as #2, etc. Be prepared to explain to
your classmates the reasons for your rankings. YT=Your town (city).
1. What is the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the YT area?
IM 6-8
2. Who are the best internists in town?
3. What have been the rates of return on investments over the past five years for index
mutual funds, certificates of deposits, and corporate bonds?
4. What is the academic success rate for students in each age group: 17 and below, 18–24,
25–30, 31–40, 41+?
5. Who are the biggest employers in YT? Who hires the greatest number of college
graduates?
6. What’s the lowest airfare from YT to London?
7. Where can you find the best price for a personal computer with 32 megabytes of RAM,
3.2GB hard disk storage, a CD-ROM, and a modem with at least 56K?
8. What are the best elementary schools in YT?
Class Discussion: After students have completed this activity, the following questions could be used to
initiate a class discussion.
• Is there a consistent source that most students ranked #1? Why or why not?
• Which criteria did you use to identify the source of information you ranked #1?
• Which question is the most difficult to obtain a source of information for? Why?
8. On the Web: Searching for Company Information
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide students with an opportunity to practice finding
appropriate information about a company in preparation for an employment interview. Additionally,
students should obtain skills in relation to navigation of organizations’ web locations.
Procedure: Assign to individual students or groups of students particular organizations for whom they
are likely to want to work. (An advantage of a group is that several students might have similar career
interests). Ask students to find the information they would need to minimally prepare for a job interview
with the respective company. Provide students with a examples of frequently-asked questions for which
they would need knowledge of the company they are interviewing with. The following questions could be
used:
• Why would you like to work for us?
• How did you hear about this opening?
• What material have you read about our organization?
• What do you know about our products or services?
• What do you know about the history of our organization?
Class Discussion: After completing this activity, discuss topics such as:
• What information was easy to locate on the Internet?
• What information, if any, would you need to know but found unavailable on the Internet?
• What other methods are available to you for finding information that is not available on the
Internet?
9. Conducting an Information-Gathering Interview
Objective: Students will analyze a real-world information-gathering interview using the text’s guidelines
for conducting the body of an interview.
Procedure: Review with students the strategies from the text related to interviewer and interviewee roles
for conducting the body of the interview. (This exercise does not include an analysis of the introduction
and closing, because published transcripts often omit these stages.)
IM 6-9
Divide the class into several groups. Supply each group with a transcript of a real-world interview (you
can give them a hard copy or a URL). Transcripts should include at least 15 substantive questions. An
excellent source of information-gathering interviews is http://www.npr.org, where you can browse the site
daily to find interviews of interest. (Scroll to the bottom of the NPR webpage for a link explaining how
to get permission to use transcripts for educational purposes.)
Each group should prepare a brief analysis of how well the interviewer and interviewee managed each
facet of their roles as suggested in the text (e.g., controlling and focusing the conversation, listening
actively, probing with secondary questions).
Class Discussion: Give each group an opportunity to share their analysis with the class. Encourage the
class to ask questions of the presenting group. You could follow up the presentations with additional
questions:
• Which techniques for control and focus seemed most effective?
• How could you tell from a transcript whether an interviewer is engaging in active listening?
• Did you notice any similarities among the probing questions that were asked? Which probes
seemed to elicit the most relevant responses? Why?
• Which interviewees gave the most clear and detailed answers? Compare the responses of
interviewees whose answers were clear and detailed with those whose answers were unclear
and vague.
o If you wanted to give detailed answers, what techniques would you use?
o If you wanted to use strategic ambiguity, what tactics would you use? Why?
• Identify at least one situation in which an interviewee (or an interviewer) corrected a
misunderstanding. Was this accomplished smoothly? Was it done in a non-accusatory
manner?
• How did various interviewees ensure that their own agendas were covered? Did they behave
ethically? Did they behave professionally?
• Which of the interviews seemed most informative? Why?
• Which seemed most intriguing? Why?
• If you could give advice about interview strategies to one of the interviewers or interviewees,
to whom would you give it? What would you say? Please be specific.
10. Receiving Accurate Information
Objective: Students will recognize communication elements that may interfere with receiving accurate
information and suggest methods for managing those challenges.
Procedure: Elicit from students the general purpose of all information-gathering interviews, whether
highly structured, unstructured, or moderately structured. Then review the communication model from the
first chapter, focusing on elements of the communication process that might interfere with receiving
accurate information. In your discussion, include the interpretations of receiver and sender; message
characteristics such as jargon and high-level abstractions; choice of channel; contexts; and various facets
of noise.
Next, divide the class into groups. Assign each group one of the following information-gathering tasks
listed below. Each group will choose a method and a structure for conducting the interview, brainstorm
factors that might impair the accuracy of the information they gather, and provide a specific example to
illustrate each factor. They should then suggest how they could design their interview to minimize these
potential interferences.
Information-gathering situations could include the following:
• You are members of a student group trying to discover which cafeteria items are most
popular and least popular among the student body.
• You have been assigned to design a better system for keeping students, faculty, and staff
informed about campus events. As a first step in this project, you have decided to gather ideas
from the student body, faculty, and staff.
• You want to find out more about a career you are interested in.
• You have to decide on your major by the end of the semester. You have been perusing the
course catalogue, but you feel overwhelmed by all the choices.
• You have always wanted to open your own lawn-care business, but you have no idea how to
go about it.
Class Discussion: Allow groups to share their findings. Encourage the rest of the class to ask questions of
and give suggestions to one another. As students share ideas, construct on the board a master list of
suggestions for improving information transmission.
11. Tricky Employment Interview Questions
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to allow students to brainstorm satisfactory answers to some
common, tricky questions asked in employment interviews.
Procedure: Divide the students into groups of four or five, and assign to each group one of the questions
listed below. Ask students to discuss why the question would be considered a tricky question. In addition,
each group should develop one example of a poor answer and one example of an appropriate answer to
the question, with a skit to demonstrate both answers to the class. After each skit, the class will briefly
discuss each question.
1. What is your greatest weakness?
2. What do you think you’ll be doing in ten years?
3. How would you evaluate your last boss?
4. What is your greatest strength?
5. I notice that your summer jobs were not in your field.
6. Why did you sign up for this interview?
7. Tell me about yourself.
8. What kind of salary would you need to join us?
Class Discussion: After each skit, spend time briefly discussing each question as a class.
• Why is this question considered a tricky question?
• What would you say the interviewer is seeking to learn from this question?
12. Mock Job Interviews
Objective: Students will gain professional assistance in answering job interview questions effectively.
Procedure: Obtain several brief descriptions of jobs that students can prepare to “apply” for. Distribute
the descriptions, and ask students to come to the next class prepared for an employment interview. Invite
an on-campus recruiter or counselors from your college placement center to come to your class and
conduct mock job interviews with a few student volunteers.
IM 6-11
Class Discussion: Ask the professional interviewer involve the class in critiquing each interview. After
the interviewer leaves, ask students to compare the interviewer’s advice with the guidelines from the text.
What did students learn that was new? That was different from the guidelines? Similar to the guidelines?
13. Impromptu Speech: Answering Interview Questions
Objective: Students will practice thinking on their feet as they truthfully answer interview questions.
Procedure: Review the text sections titled “Anticipate Key Questions,” “Respond to the Employer’s
Needs and Concerns,” “Be Honest,” ‘Emphasize the Positive,” “Back Up Your Answers with Evidence,”
“Keep Your Answers Brief,’ and “Be Enthusiastic.” Next, distribute the worksheet titled “Sample
Interview Questions” (located at the end of this section), or use the questions listed in Table 6-4, of the
text.
Students will take turns playing the role of interviewee and interviewer. For each round, the interviewee
will state which job they are applying for. This must be a job they are currently qualified for (babysitting
and mowing lawns are fine). The interviewer will ask the interviewee a relevant question from the Sample
Interview Questions list. The interviewee will answer in accordance with ethical standards (that is,
answers may not include any fabricated or exaggerated information). The interviewee will then ask the
interviewer a question about the organization or job they are interviewing for.
Variation: Ask students to compose four or five of their own open-ended job interview questions.
Before the interview, the interviewee will hand their questions to the interviewer, who will ask any one of
the questions. This variation gives students practice in composing as well as answering questions. This
variation provides plenty of challenge for students, even though they have written their own questions.
Class Discussion: After each set of five mock interviews, take a break and evaluate the questions and
answers according to standards set forth in the text sections you reviewed with the class.
14. Simulated Job Interview
Objective: Students will learn additional tips for answering job interview questions effectively.
Procedure: Instruct students to visit the OKC Community College site at
http://www.okc.cc.ok.us/rloving/SuccessInterview.html to complete the online practice interview.
Class Discussion: After all students have completed the online interview practice on their own, conduct
an open-ended discussion to find out what they have learned. Elicit their experiences and reactions.
Whenever possible, tie students’ comments to specific guidelines found in this text.
14. Observing a Professional Interview
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide students with an opportunity to watch a professional
conduct an interview.
Procedure: Invite one or two professional interviewers to visit your classroom to discuss their strategies
and/or to conduct some “mock” interviews with student volunteers. Types of interviewers you might
invite include professional recruiters who visit your college campus, career counselors from your college
placement center, human resource specialists who conduct performance appraisals, legal assistants who
conduct information gathering interviews, and sales representatives who conduct sales interviews.
